CARUANA GOT HIS AIRPORT PRIORITIES WRONG

Speaking to the GSD faithful last week the former Supreme Leader predicted the GSD could be back in power as soon as 2015. One perquisite for that to happen would be collective amnesia on the part of Gibraltarian voters over the expensive fiascos committed by consecutive governments led by Caruana.

One reminder that will not go away for a very long time is the Caruana Gin Palace building that now serves as the Gibraltar International Airport terminal. No doubt the auditors would have a field day if they were ever set to work wading through the contracts and payments associated with this edifice to one man’s vanity. It also demonstrates the former Supreme Leader’s inability to determine what was the priority for the airport and Gibraltar.

The priority wasn’t the airport terminal. I am not and never have been one of those who didn’t believe that Gibraltar needed a new terminal suited to the needs of today’s travellers and the airlines that fly them. What Gibraltar didn’t need was the budget busting Gin Palace that was placed by the border in order to honour sections of the Cordoba Agreement that Spain never complied with. A much simpler option could have been chosen and indeed there are numerous examples such as the Southend on Sea airport in Essex which was upgraded for the London Olympics at a fraction of the cost of the Gin Palace. The Southend option was pointed to on a number of occasions by the current Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Joseph Garcia, when he held the Opposition Tourism portfolio.

The priority at the airport was to take traffic under the runway either through the tunnel scheme that ended up as a giant ditch or some other such project. The chaos and delays that ensue every time an aircraft lands or takes off is one of the reasons for the border crossing misery.

It remains a priority to this day. The current government has spoken of opening up more border crossings to ease the congestion at the current Third World frontier. To achieve that we need to allow people and vehicles to be able to access the border without crossing the runway. I am not an engineer but getting people from A in Gibraltar to B in La Linea is the aim: let’s just hope we don’t have to demolish the Caruana Gin Palace to do it.

I stood today as the barriers came down. Crowds of tourists waited to cross the runway, Gibraltarians going about their business stood alongside them or sat in their cars with other cross border traffic as well as the buses, lorries and coaches. It was chaos and the summer hasn’t started yet. If Caruana had addressed and solved this issue whilst in Government he would have performed a notable service for Gibraltar. Instead we have the Gin Palace, which we can’t avoid as whilst we wait to cross it sits there staring us in the face. It will stare us in the face come election time in 2015 too and will be all the warning many people need not to vote GSD.

SPANISH WORKERS’ FURY OVER BORDER CHAOS

There is a theory that if you have to make a complaint it is stronger coming from somebody within an organisation than an outsider. Hence with the current chaos at the Spanish border involving vehicles and motorbikes leaving the Rock a protest from Gibraltar will probably be met with a shrug of the shoulders from Zapatero or Trini, especially as the chief minister has just insinuated she is a liar.

Conversely if the protests come from Spaniards, especially those largely living in the town of La Línea, then the government in Madrid is more likely to take note. After all a general election is fast approaching and PSOE needs every vote it can get.

Of course it comes as no surprise that No.6 has been silent on this issue – but then that is the norm for the Caruana administration when it comes to taking Spain to task. No doubt the chief minister is up to his armpits in the urine to be found in the housing estate lifts and is wondering why all those who have been given accommodation in his new prize developments haven’t all pledged to vote GSD. A real head scratcher that one.

In the meantime the misery at the border continues and whilst No 6 says nowt the Asociación de Trabajadores Españoles en Gibraltar has plenty to say on the matter. Their spokesperson J J Uceda has been in touch to reveal they have denounced the situation both to the Spanish Government’s sub-delegate in the Campo de Gibraltar and also to the PSOE MP Salvador de la Encina.

J J says the protest is both on the part of the Spanish workers in Gibraltar and also all the other visitors to the Rock who have to cross the La Línea frontier. It comes to something when Gibraltarians living in Spain and workers on the Rock have to rely on ASCTEG to protect their interests and rights because the chief minister of Gibraltar will not.

Señor Uceda says the situation is so bad that many Spanish workers have simply abandoned their motorbikes in Gibraltar and walked across the border as they do not want to spend hours trying to get home. He also points out that the Guardia Civil are only operating one channel for cars and another for motorbikes when under the Córdoba Accords there are meant to be three lanes in and three lanes out. J J is to be congratulated on keeping a copy of the Córdoba document to hand because seemingly everybody else has ditched theirs so it may now have acquired collector value.

Of course the airport is Gibraltarian and hence its safety is a matter for the MoD and the Rock’s government. As work progresses painfully slowly on the terminal, which if it is to be used as a backdrop for Caruana’s election photos means the polls will be God knows when, it is left to J J to point to the safety aspects caused by the traffic tailbacks. If an aircraft has to make an emergency landing at the Rock it could well be that cars, motorbikes or indeed pedestrians are strung out along the width of its runway without any chance of scrabbling to safety.

It comes better from Spaniards to point out to the powers that be in Madrid that they are operating a third world frontier at La Línea and whilst it brings inconvenience to Gibraltarians, Lineneses, Britons and other nationals alike – the sole shame belongs to Spain. ASCTEG also points out that some 4,000 badly needed jobs are provided on the Rock for Spaniards yet they have to suffer the indignity of being treated like cattle by the Guardia Civil.

I stand corrected. Cattle would be treated far better because they have action groups to take up their cause. Those who cross the border have to thank ASCTEG for speaking out. Sadly for Gibraltarians, when it comes to defending their interests before Spain, the chief minister and his government are simply not fit for the purpose.